Scheduling Tool for next fest

[Rodney V. Smith]

This is actually something that can be used so any short film and it's a good habit to get into doing breakdown sheets. Huge help in pre-production and development.

I used to use Movie Magic Scheduling and Budgeting, but those programs no longer work with Windows Vista or 7, so I've switched over to Gorilla.

Scenechronize is a free service that allows you to upload your scripts and do proper scene breakdowns, even going so far as stripboards. Breakdown sheets are exported to PDF and its actually quite easy to use. It's fully integrated, so you can go back and forth from the final script, to the breakdowns and strips and keep everything in order.

http://www.scenechronize.com

I'm in no way affiliated with this company. I just came across this site and thought I'd give it a whirl. I liked it so I'm passing it along to help some of you guys with pre-production processes.

Enjoy.

[Mark Harris]

Good find, Rodney. This seems like what I'd hoped Celtx would be. Going to give it a test run.

[Marlon Ladd]

I'm definitely going to check it out. It sounds like something I'd really like to have. Good lookin' out.

[Rodney V. Smith]

I'm liking it so far. Right now I am the Production Manager so I don;t have to share with anyone until much later. I've found it great for tagging the scripts and I'm uploading storyboards for the scenes now.

Theres a section for production documents so going to upload my shotlist for each scene as well and any other documents that come up like location reports and photos etc. Having it centralized like this is pretty useful especially when other people in the production team may not have (most likely dont) the same software. No need for that now. I just use a generic password and share with my cowriter Andrew.

Share your thoughts on the program when you get a chance.

[Marlon Ladd]

Yeah, it sounds really beneficial to have everything you need all right there together. That will make it a heck of alot easier and organized. Rodney, you got a co-writer?? Oh, okay, BIG-BALLA'! :Drogar-BigGrin(DBG)

On a side note - I would just like to say that I really don't think it's fair for you to have all of this at your disposal. You already kick all our a@@es when it comes to starting on pre-production. I guess now we can expect to be really KO'd. :nads:

[Rodney V. Smith]

Rodney, you got a co-writer?? Oh, okay, BIG-BALLA'! :Drogar-BigGrin(DBG)

Always have. He's the & on all of my films. Sometimes I get to be the ampersand though.



On a side note - I would just like to say that I really don't think it's fair for you to have all of this at your disposal. You already kick all our a@@es when it comes to starting on pre-production. I guess now we can expect to be really KO'd. :nads:

Hey, that's why I'm sharing. No reason we all can't be prepared.

[Sprocketboy]

This is a juicy find. But, if you are using Gorilla software aren't you repeating many steps by using this site as well? They don't have anything related to budgeting. Budgeting and scheduling kind of go together.

[Rodney V. Smith]

This is a juicy find. But, if you are using Gorilla software aren't you repeating many steps by using this site as well? They don't have anything related to budgeting. Budgeting and scheduling kind of go together.

I really wish it had budgeting included, but I can deal.

Budgeting I can deal with on my end. Right now I'm the only one with Gorilla so it's kind of hard to keep everything in sync with the rest of the team I'm building. This gives that kind of flexibility that's not software dependent. Still very useful.

[Marlon Ladd]

Always have. He's the & on all of my films. Sometimes I get to be the ampersand though.



Hey, that's why I'm sharing. No reason we all can't be prepared.

I know, I'm just messin' witcha'. That was a backwards compliment. I really am gonna' dig in to this when I get to the house though.

[Rodney V. Smith]

Gotcha. Forgot to switch on my sense of humor this morning. **CLICK**

[Marlon Ladd]

It's all good. LOL!

[ramsaur]

You can't do a budget breakdown but you can do a script breakdown in Final Draft.

[Rodney V. Smith]

Yes you can do a script breakdown in Final Draft but that's about it. You need to export to Movie Magic/EP software or export to Gorilla. This tool allows you to do a almost every aspect of preproduction except the budgeting. Every aspect of your production can be kept in one place.

For anyone who has done scheduling with stripboards, you know how useful it is. As far as I can see it's like Gorilla Lite.

[Rodney V. Smith]

Anybody else tried the tool?

[vnguyen972]

I used this on 2 projects and it was extremely useful, especially stripboard and reports.

[Rodney V. Smith]

stripboard and reports are so essential... people dont appreciate a good breakdown sheet...

[Sprocketboy]

I'm definitely going to put this to some use on the next production (FREE VERISON). One thing is for sure... a low budget production can always benefit from pre-production planning and organization. In the long run you will save more money and get more shots.

Once you go pro, the price rates are pretty high. Short films start at $50 a month, then Union Indies between 1.5M to 5M is $500 a month. I guess its not so bad if you have a 1.5M budget.

[Mark Harris]

But to me the real benefit of this is multiple people can work on it from anywhere. Does Gorilla do that? Can it share a project over a network so, say the art dept can be working at the same time the director is working from two different locations?

[Sprocketboy]

Actually the pricing is not so bad. If you have a 6 week shoot on a feature (with Union Actors) the price will come to $1000 for 2 months. Then they archive (to refer to during post-production) your schedule and reports for free (for the time being). For now, this is a sweet way to go for a total collaborative environment from anywhere.

Here's a quote from the site about the archiving:

Finding something in scenechronize is a lot simpler than digging through those dusty boxes.
*free for now, but will require a subscription starting later in 2009.